


Doing Good

by icandrawamoth



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Bathing/Washing, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fandom Trumps Hate, Hurt/Comfort, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Natural Disasters, Rescue Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-24 05:48:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16634120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icandrawamoth/pseuds/icandrawamoth
Summary: Finn and Poe are part of a Resistance relief team helping a village on a backwater planet in the aftermath of a tragic mudslide.





	Doing Good

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FangirlUnderground](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FangirlUnderground/gifts).



> Written for Fandom Trumps Hate for fangirlunderground on Tumblr.

The only thing Finn can see is mud. It's like an ocean, dips and crests like frozen waves where the sticky brown ooze has already begun to harden under the hot sun. Here and there, a tree or part of a destroyed structure poke out, and in between them are the people.

The citizens of the tiny village on this backwater planet are simple. Their level of technology is low, and their planet has nothing of real value to offer. The First Order has left them alone; the Resistance only found out about what had happened because they had an agent here recruiting.

And the people are grieving. The landslide caused by the last few days of heavy rain and wind has destroyed everything. The town is flattened. Fields of crops have disappeared. So many people are dead, and so many more are missing.

That's why Finn is here, part of the relief efforts General Organa has sent. He and Poe along with the other members of Black Squadron and a few more volunteers had delivered food and medical supplies and temporary shelters. Now, as some of the others help bandage wounds and care for orphaned children and set up the shelters, Finn and Poe are doing what needs to be done: digging. Searching. Hoping.

Finn groans as he moves another shovelful of mud, wiping sweat from his neck. It's hot, backbreaking word, but he can't stop. There's still the chance someone might be saved. Every minute counts, life slipping away beneath his feet, beneath the mud. It makes him glad for once that he doesn't have the Force; he can't imagine what it would be like to actually feel that happening.

Off to his left, there's a sudden cry, a villager waving their shovel in the air and calling out in a language Finn doesn't know. Others rush forward, dropping to their knees and pawing at the mud with bare hands. After a few moments, a body emerges, pulled little by little from the mud. It doesn't move as it's laid out on the surface, and the crowd breaks into a wail.

Finn turns away. It's far from the first blow.

Suddenly, there's a hand on his back, and Finn looks up to see Poe, his face drawn and lined. He's sweaty, hair matted with it, clothes sticking to his skin, and on any other day Finn would find that attractive.

“Hanging in there?” Poe asks quietly.

Finn makes himself nod. “I can't believe this,” he answers, voice just as a soft. “It never occurred to me that there could be so much pain and suffering in the galaxy that the First Order had nothing to do with. I was so naive.”

Poe shakes his head and squeezes Finn's arm. “You didn't know. And you're helping. That's what counts. Here.” He hands Finn a bottle of water that sweats copiously and is already warm under the sun.

“Have you found anything – anyone?” Finn corrects as he takes a drink and pours a little of the water over his burning face.

Poe looks away, face set in a pained expression Finn wishes he could ease. “Just bodies. I–” He cuts himself off, swallowing. “Nothing hopeful yet.”

Finn pulls him into a hug, not caring about how warm it is or the uncomfortable way their damp flesh sticks together. “Just mud for me,” he murmurs.

“I'm glad.” Poe murmurs against him, unwilling to pull away despite the heat. “Seeing those bodies is...not pleasant.”

Just then, there's a scream from the other side of the former village, and the two men run to see what the commotion is. A woman is frantically scrabbling at the dirt, crying and babbling. Finn drops beside her and sets to work even before he sees what she's doing.

He loses all his breath as he sees a scrap of cloth then, oh – a tiny foot. A tiny foot that's _moving_.

“Get a medic!” Finn cries and redoubles his efforts. As quickly and carefully as he can, he excavates the little body, and soon he's holding an infant in his arms. It's hard to tell with the grime, but he thinks it's a little girl.

“Let me see,” a voice over his shoulder instructs, and then the baby is being lifted out of his arms, pulled away by a medic and rushed to the medical tent. The woman who had cried out doesn't even look at Finn as she rushes after.

Finn breathes hard, trying to take in what's just happened. “She was alive,” he says roughly as Poe helps him to his feet.

Poe nods and squeezes his arm. “You helped save her.”

“How could she–?”

“There must have been an air pocket. Just enough to keep her going until she was found.” Poe pulls him close again. “Hopefully she has family still here to go back to.”

“Yeah...” Finn raises his head and looks toward the medical tent, where the crowd has drifted to follow the action. “Should I...?”

Poe shakes his head gently, touching Finn's hand. “We're more use out here. Back to work for us, I think.”

“Okay.” Finn leans into the kiss Poe offers, then slips away, back to retrieve his shovel and move on to dig in a new spot.

 

The rest of the day drags past with no more live rescues. The sun sinks in the sky, and a cold wind picks up, sapping the heat from the air until, instead of sweating, Finn finds himself shivering almost violently in his damp clothes. Defeated and exhausted, people begin to drift from the mud ocean to a succession of campfires that have sprung up to one side along the little cluster of shelters. Finn stays, though, determinedly sticking his shovel into the hardened mud over and over. Across the way, he can see Poe and the other Resistance volunteers doing the same thing.

Eventually, though, it gets too dark to see, the flickering lights of the fires not reaching this far, and Finn lets his shovel drop from numb fingers, exhausted. He drags heavy feet to go meet Poe, who greets him with a look that isn't a smile but holds a bit of relief just the same at seeing him.

“Jess says the villagers have made dinner are offering to feed us in exchange for our help,” he tells Finn.

Finn hesitates. He doesn't want to be rude, but the thought of sitting with these people, intruding on their grief and not being able to help at all, isn't a thought he relishes.

Poe seems to understand. “There're some camp showers set up behind the shelters. Why don't you go clean up and I'll bring something back for you?”

“Thanks.”

“No problem, buddy.” Poe sends him off with a clap on the arm.

 

The water isn't much warmer than the ambient air, but even as he shivers, Finn is relieved to get the caked mud off of him and finally be clean. The soap can't do anything for the heaviness he still feels, but he didn't expect it to.

Behind him, the curtain rustles, and Poe's voice drifts in. “Mind if I join you?”

Finn almost smiles. “There isn't another one free?"

Poe steps in behind him, naked body close against Finn, hands resting on his hips as he nuzzles his damp hair. “I didn't say that.”

Finn turns in his arms, arching his neck to keep his face out of the spray. “You okay?”

In the dim light from a glow rod outside, Poe's eyes are dark and shadowed. “Tired,” he answers after a moment, the single word a heavy sigh. “Today has been a lot.”

Finn nods, running gentle hands across Poe's chest, hoping to give comfort through touch. “This is different than fighting a war,” he says softly. “Everything one here just feels so...helpless.”

“Yeah.” Poe sighs again and touches Finn's face. “I'm glad we're here together at least.”

“Me too.” Finn kisses him, soft and gentle. “Come on, let's finish here, then there're bunks waiting for us.”

They wash themselves and each other, soothing, almost chaste touches, then towel off in the cool air before dressing in sleep things and returning to their shelter. The tent is tiny, smaller even than the quarters they share back on base, just enough room for two cots and a tiny heater unit. Poe flips the unit on as Finn perches on the edge of his cot, picking up the bowl of stew Poe has left him. It's gone cold by now, but he doesn't fuss. It still tastes good, and he hadn't realized how hungry he was after the hard work he's been at for hours.

He sets the bowl aside when he's finished and looks up at Poe, who's laid down on his own cot and looks well on the way to sleep, eyelids drooping as he watches Finn. “Sleep,” Finn tells him, the ghost of a smile on his face. “You look like you need it.”

“Mmhm,” Poe grunts. After a short pause, he says, “Come over 'ere.”

Finn doesn't need to be told twice. He takes the barely one stop across the shelter and sits down on the edge of Poe's bunk. “Here I am.”

“Here you are.” Poe looks up at him, blinking tiredly, then tugs on his arm. “C'mere.”

Finn indulges him, sprawling out on top of Poe – the only way both of them will fit on the cot. “This thing isn't going to collapse on us, is it?”

“Nah.” Poe drapes arms around Finn's waste, holding him close. “'re sturdier than they look.”

“Good.” Finn rests his head against Poe's shoulder, nosing into the warmth and familiar, comforting smell of his neck. Sleep is rushing in on him fast now that he's vertical.

“Oh, almost forgot,” Poe says suddenly.

“Hmm?"

“The baby. The one you saved.” Poe shifts, craning his neck to look at Finn. “Found out her name's Kayani. Medical cleared her; she's totally fine. And I met her mother. She was beside herself when she found out her daughter was alive. She wants to meet you.”

“I'm glad she's okay. But it wasn't really me. If that other woman hadn't found Kayani in the first place...”

“Her mother knows that. But she wants to thank you, too.” Poe settles down again, one hand dipping beneath Finn's shirt and flattening warm against his back, the other cradling his head. “You did good, too.”

“So did you. We know we can't save all these people, but just being here...we're doing good. The Resistance is doing good.”

“Yeah.” The word slurs a little, Poe nearly asleep, delivering his news having taken the last bit of his energy.

“Yeah.” Finn smiles at him and kisses him lightly one last time before going boneless against him and letting sleep take him as well. He has no doubt tomorrow will be another long, trying day, but they're here, they _are_ trying, they're helping, contributing just a little bit of good to the galaxy, trying to take away some pain from this one group of people, and that's what counts.


End file.
